15.12.15
HS2 appoints three design firms to help deliver Birmingham-Crewe link
HS2 design consultants have been appointed today (15 December) to provide £150m worth of services on the route between Birmingham and Crewe and create a second hybrid bill to bring the high-speed line further up north.
The winning firms will provide detailed structural design and environmental services, but also work with HS2 Ltd to create the necessary powers to bring the line as far as Crewe by 2027 – one year after the rest of phase 1. Works will take part during what is now being called ‘phase 2a’.
Arup will deliver civils and environmental services, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff will work on the railway systems (including engineering design, construction planning, operations planning, expert advice, detailed modelling, systems engineering and assurance), and Mouchel Ltd will work on site access, land referencing and stakeholder engagement.
Darren Reed, head of rail at WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, said: “Our appointment is testament to the quality of the work delivered by our team for HS2 phase 1, where we designed a safe, affordable and maintainable high-speed rail system that integrates effectively with the existing rail network.
“We will build on this success and use our extensive international high-speed rail expertise to deliver a design for phase 2 that supports HS2’s vision of a world-leading, transformational rail system that will bring lasting benefits for many generations.”
The contract award notice also said AECOM won part of the contract for site access, land referencing and stakeholder engagement as well as Mouchel Ltd.
HS2 Ltd’s chief executive, Simon Kirby, said: “Bringing HS2 to Crewe six years early will dramatically boost connectivity and improve journeys for millions of people travelling between London, the Midlands and the major cities of the north.
“That’s why I’m pleased to confirm that we have appointed Arup, Mouchel and WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff to help us push forward with the next stage of the detailed design and help prepare the draft legislation we will need to get Birmingham to Crewe open by 2027.”
Chancellor George Osborne recently rubber-stamped HS2 Ltd chair Sir David Higgins’ proposals to build the key section early to benefit the north and Midlands.
Accelerating the construction of the line was a key recommendation in his HS2 Plus report from 2014. Higgins said at the time that the Crewe link should be done as part of the phase one works “because the route between the two is smaller, cheaper and easier to complete within the timescale in connecting the north to the south”.
But the exact route for the rest of phase 2 will not now be published until autumn 2016, about two years later than originally expected when the route consultation finished in January last year.